Various penile implants have been disclosed in the patent literature and are commercially available for curing erectile impotence. Such devices basically comprise a pair of cylinders, each of which adapted to be implanted in a respective corpus cavernosum of the penis. Each cylinder includes a hollow portion arranged to be pressurized by the pumping of a liquid therein. When the cylinder portions are pressurized the penis assumes an erect, rigid state. The liquid used to inflate the cylinders is provided via respective tubes from a liquid supply reservoir. A pump and a reversible, one-way valve are also included in the prosthesis and are typically arranged to be implanted in the scrotum and/or the abdomen. The pump and valve enable the liquid to be carried from the reservoir into the cylinder to cause the erection when the valve is in a first setting. In order to render the penis flaccid, the valve is arranged to be actuated to enable the liquid to pass through it in the opposite direction so that operation of the pump carries the liquid back into the reservoir.
While the penile implants such as described above have proven suitable for their intended purposes, they nevertheless leave something to be desired from the standpoint of simplicity of construction and ease of operation. In this regard, conventional penile implants require the use of not only the inflatable cylinders, which are to be located within the penis, but also a control valve, pump and reservoir, all of which are implanted within the body remote from the penis. Moreover, operation of such remotely located pump-type penile implants requires the user to first manually operate the valve to its appropriate setting to enable flow from the reservoir to the cylinders and then to manually pump the liquid into cylinders to cause the penis to become erect for sexual intercourse. In order to render the penis flaccid, the valve has to be manually returned to its initial position to enable the liquid to flow therethrough in the opposite direction so that operation of the pump carries the liquid from the cylinders back into the reservoir.